Posted on 05/13/2004 4:50:22 PM PDT by KQQL
A CIA official said Thursday that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was, in "high probability," the person shown on a video beheading American Nicholas Berg, based on an analysis of the voice on the video.
The speaker on the video, now believed to be al-Zarqawi, reads a lengthy statement criticizing Islamic scholars and taunting the crusaders. Standing alongside four other militants wearing headscarves and masks to disguise themselves, al-Zarqawi then kills Berg.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters Thursday in Baghdad that it appears al-Zarqawi was responsible. The U.S. military has already posted a $10 million reward for Zarqawi for having orchestrated some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Iraq.
Initially, Berg's murder seemed to be a case of an eccentric young American who was in the wrong place at the worst possible time -- just as the revelations of American mistreatment of iraqi prisoners were coming to light.
But CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports on what is turning into a bizarre mystery with a connection to 9/11.
U.S. officials say the FBI questioned Berg in 2002 after a computer password Berg used in college turned up in the possession of Zaccarias Moussaoui, the al Qaeda operative arrested shortly before 9/11 for his suspicious activity at a flight school in Minnesota.
The bureau had already dismissed the connection between Berg and Moussaoui as nothing more than a college student who had been careless about protecting his password.
But in the wake of Berg's gruesome murder, it becomes a stranger than fiction coincidence -- an American who inadvertently gave away his computer password to one notorious al Qaeda operative is later murdered by another notorious al Qaeda operative.
Berg's body was found Saturday in Baghdad. Two e-mails he sent to his family and friends show he traveled widely and unguarded throughout Iraq, an unsafe practice rarely done by Westerners.
On Tuesday, an Islamic Web site released the video, titled "Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands."
Al-Zarqawi is thought to be in Iraq, operating his own terrorist network, known simply as the "Zarqawi network." A specialist in poisons, he is thought to have extensive ties across the militant Islamic movement and is considered an ally of Osama bin Laden.
As recently as March, U.S. officials said al-Zarqawi's practice was not to make taped public pronouncements or take credit for attacks. However, in the last five weeks, he has increased his public profile with at least three recordings, including Berg's beheading.
Al-Zarqawi is believed to be behind well over a dozen high-profile attacks in Iraq, and many other acts of violence, which have killed hundreds.
Martin reports that in at least one other case, a high-level al Qaeda operative has personally carried out a brutal killing. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected Sept. 11 mastermind now in U.S. custody, is widely believed to have killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Meanwhile Thursday, new details emerged about Berg's last weeks in Iraq — a timeline that has been contested by his family and the U.S. government.
Authorities in Baghdad denied that Berg, 26, was held in U.S. custody before he disappeared in early April, despite claims to the contrary by his family. The authorities said he had been held by Iraqi police for about two weeks and questioned by FBI agents three times.
In Baghdad, U.S. spokesmen Dan Senor said that "to my knowledge" Berg was not affiliated with any U.S. or coalition organization, nor was he ever in U.S. custody.
Iraqi police arrested Berg in Mosul on March 24 because local authorities believed he may have been involved in "suspicious activities," Senor said. He refused to elaborate, except to confirm that the Americans were aware Berg was in custody.
Berg was released April 6 and "was advised to leave the country," Senor added. Instead, Berg checked into a Baghdad hotel.
Berg had told friends he was arrested by Iraqi police in Mosul because he had an Israeli stamp in his passport. In e-mails released by his family, Berg wrote about his experiences in trying to track down and later meet an in-law in the Mosul area.
In Mosul, police chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair al-Barhawi insisted Thursday that his department had never arrested Berg and maintained he had no knowledge of the case.
"The Iraqi police never arrested the slain American," al-Barhawi told reporters. "Take it from me ... that such reports are baseless."
Since Iraq remains under U.S. military occupation, it seems unlikely that the Iraqi police would have held Berg, or any other American, for such a length of time without at least the tacit approval of U.S. authorities.
"The Iraqi police do not tell the FBI what to do, the FBI tells the Iraqi police what to do," Berg's father, Michael Berg told the AP. "Who do they think they're kidding?"
The younger Berg told his family that U.S. officials took custody of him soon after his arrest and he was not allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer, his father said.
Kimmitt said U.S. forces kept tabs on Berg during his confinement to make sure he was being fed and properly treated because "he was an American citizen."
But the three FBI visits suggest American authorities were concerned about more than Berg's well-being. They may have had their own suspicions about what the young American was doing in Iraq.
Two e-mails Berg sent to his family and friends show he traveled widely and unguarded throughout Iraq, an unsafe practice rarely done by Westerners.
Shortly before Berg's disappearance, he was warned by the FBI that Iraq was too volatile a place for unprotected American civilians and that he could be harmed, a senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday.
Officials said the U.S. government warned Berg to leave Iraq, and offered him a flight out of the country, a month before his grisly death.
On April 10, four days after Berg was released from an Iraqi prison, an American diplomat offered to put him on a flight to Jordan, State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said.
But Berg told the diplomat he "planned to travel overland to Kuwait and would call (his) family from there," Shannon said.
Michael Berg, said that although his son wanted to leave Iraq, he refused the flight offer because he thought the travel to the airport would be too dangerous.
No --- I've only read there was an Iraqi uncle that became quite close to Berg. I read somewhere -- maybe on this same thread that he lived in a city that was pretty pro-Saddam, I think if the uncle was a Kurd or Shiite that would have been mentioned --- by the dad at least.
Bookmark
Then you haven't been paying attention. One of bin Laden's earliest al Qaeda associates in Afghanistan and Sudan was- is- an Iraqi native by the last name of Saad. [Not to be confused with bin Laden's son Saad]. The Iraqi Saad was referred to as bin Laden's engineer, and he worked on the Port Sudan road with bin Laden when old Osama had a lot of businesses there. As it happens, this is also the same time period when Iraq was trying to hide materials from UNSCOM in Sudan. Saad went wherever bin Laden went.
Iraq has a history of working with the National Islamic Front aka Islamic national Front in Sudan, etc. Cooperating with or supporting Islamist wackoes is not really unusual for Iraq- it also worked with the islamicist Allied Democratic Forces in Uganda.
There is evidence Iraqi leader Hussein funded the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria- known as the GIA and did so through al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
JANUARY 1999 : (IRAQ & AL QAEDA RELATIONSHIP : IRAQ REORGANIZES ITS INTELLIGENCE NETWORKS THROUGHOUT EUROPE TO ACCOMODATE AL QAEDA; IRAQI MUKHABARAT AGENT HAQI ISMAIL LEAVES IRAQ TO TRAIN IN AFGHANISTAN AL QAEDA CAMP; ISMAIL IS BELIEVED TO BE A LIASON BETWEEN IRAQ, TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA. HE WAS GIVEN A POSITION IN THE TALIBAN FOREIGN MINISTRY) "86. In January 1999, IRAQ began reorganizing and mobilizing IRAQI INTELLIGENCE front operations throughout Europe in support of BIN LADEN and AL QAEDA. HAQI ISMAIL, believed to be a member of the IRAQ’S MUKHABARAT Secret Service, left IRAQ to train in an Afghanistan AL QAEDA camp. ISMAIL was believed to be a liason between IRAQ, the TALIBAN and AL QAEDA and was rewarded with a position in the TALIBAN Foreign Ministry." -- "Ashton, et al. v. al Qaeda, et al.: Complaint (PDF) Lawsuit claiming a 9/11 link between Iraq and al Qaeda. Sept. 3, 2002"
In al Qaeda's infamous Malaysia terrorist summit in January 2000, an Iraqi agetn, a native-born Iraqi- had an airport job courtesy of the Iraqi consulate. He met with two of the 911 hijackers and escorted them to the private meeting with the plotters of the USS Cole and 9/11 WTC attacks. His name is Abdel Hikmat Shakir and he attended the meetings which went on for a few days. After the meetings were over, two of the hijackers traveled from that meeting to San Diego. By the way, in Sahkir's apartment a number of documents tying him to terrorist attacks against the US were found.
Throughout the nineties, Iraqi intelligence officials met with al Qaeda leaders at least eight times. Similarly, Egyptian Islamic Jihad/al Qaeda's Zawahiri met with Iraqi officials in baghdad as early as 1992.
2001 end + ?: (AL QAEDA MEMBERS ACCEPT 2000 OFFER OF SAFE-HAVEN IN IRAQ. THE OFFER HAD BEEN EXTENDED IN 2000 BY AN IRAQI AGENT OF SADDAM HUSSEIN WHO IS ALSO PART OF THE SENIOR LEVELS OF ANSAR AL ISLAM) "... Baghdad has an agent in the most senior levels of the radical organization Ansar al-Islam, that controls this corner of Iraq. In 2000, this agent offered al-Qaeda safe haven in the region. After we swept al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, some of its members accepted this safe haven. " -- later comments by Colin Powell, "Exposed: Saddam's Prohibited Missiles and Support of al-Qaeda Terrorism," Colin Powell address to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, via Newsmax.com, Feb. 5, 2003
And then there is Mamdouh Mahmud Salim , some reports say he is Sudanese with Iraqi parents and in other sources as having been born in Iraq.
More on Salim :
A grand jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan indicted Mamdouh Mahmud Salim on Jan. 6 for allegedly conspiring with bin Laden and others to murder Americans, use weapons of mass destruction — including conventional and nuclear weapons — transport explosives and disrupt and destroy U.S. national-defense operations. Salim is being held without bail in the Metropolitan Correctional Center. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison without parole. A native of Sudan who is believed to be of Iraqi descent, Salim is alleged to be bin Laden’s finance chief. He was brought to the United States in December, three months after his arrest in Germany on a U.S. warrant.
And there is also
* Kasim Ali : AMSTERDAM — The guys around the scuba school laughingly called them the "Al Qaeda Diving Team." But for law enforcement officials, it was no joke. Late last year [in 2002] , Dutch counter-terrorism agents investigating a possible Al Qaeda recruitment cell grew interested in the school because a man suspected of recruiting terrorists had become a certified diver and studied to be an instructor there. Iraqi-born Kasim Ali was one of between 50 and 150 Muslim men who had taken classes in recent years with the same Tunisian instructor at the school in the city of Eindhoven, about 70 miles southeast of Amsterdam. - "Fears Persist of Terrorism Links at Scuba School; Few answers appear in the probe of students in Netherlands suspected of ties to Al Qaeda ," by Sebastian Rotella, LA Times, July 31 2003
And there is this:
* Khalid Sheik Mohammed aka KSM : 1995 : (PHILIPPINES ARRESTS 9 ABU SAYYAF MEMBERS UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF KSM : 6 WERE IRAQI AGENTS) When police in the Philippines arrested nine members of Abu Sayyaf in 1995, they identified six of the nine as Iraqi agents. They believed this cell had operated under instructions from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, one of bin Laden's senior lieutenants. - "Powell's mission: to link Saddam with terror," theage.com.au, February 1 2003 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/31/1043804523375.html.
And this :
Mahmoud Ahmad Mohammed Ahmad aka Omar al-Faruq : 2002 : (INDONESIA : IRAQI AL-FARUQ, WHO FORGED TIES BETWEEN JEMAAH ISLAMIAH & AL QAEDA, IS ARRESTED) Another prominent name is Omar al-Faruq, arrested last year in Indonesia and now in US custody. An Iraqi, born Mahmoud Ahmad Mohammed Ahmad, he, too, has travelled on false Kuwaiti passports. Faruq was instrumental in forging fraternal and financial links between al Qaeda and Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiah, accused of the Bali bombings. - "Powell's mission: to link Saddam with terror," theage.com.au, February 1 2003 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/31/1043804523375.html.
And this :
* al-Mamouri 1982 - 1990 : (IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER AL MAMOURI IS EMPLOYED TO FORGE LINKS BETWEEN IRAQ & FUNDAMENTALIST GROUPS IN PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, THE GULF & SUDAN) Italian officials say that Mr al-Mamouri held the rank of general in the Iraqi secret service, and from 1982 to 1990 worked in the Special Operations Branch forging Baghdad’s links with Islamic fundamentalist groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Gulf and Sudan. - "Hijacker 'given anthrax flask by Iraqi agent'," by DANIEL MCGRORY, The London Times, SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 2001
another little tidbit for ya:
MARCH 2003 : (911 CONSPIRATOR GALAN WAS INVITED TO PARTY BY IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO SPAIN - IRAQ KNEW HIM NOT BY HIS NAME BUT BY HIS AL QAEDA ALIAS) An alleged terrorist accused of helping the 11 September conspirators was invited to a party by the Iraqi ambassador to Spain under his al-Qaeda nom de guerre, according to documents seized by Spanish investigators. Yusuf Galan, who was photographed being trained at a camp run by Osama bin Laden, is now in jail, awaiting trial in Madrid. The indictment against him, drawn up by investigating judge Baltasar Garzon, claims he was 'directly involved with the preparation and carrying out of the attacks ... by the suicide pilots on 11 September'. Evidence of Galan's links with Iraqi government officials came to light only recently, as investigators pored through more than 40,000 pages of documents seized in raids at the homes of Galan and seven alleged co-conspirators. The Spanish authorities have supplied copies to lawyers in America, and this week the documents will form part of a dossier to be filed in a federal court in Washington, claiming damages of approximately $100 billion on behalf of more than 2,500 11 September victims. The lawsuit lists Saddam's government in Iraq as one of its principal defendants, claiming it provided 'material support' to the al-Qaeda terrorists. Under US law, the victims' families do not have to prove active direction or involvement in the details of the 9/11 conspiracy by Iraq, only that Saddam's regime gave al-Qaeda more general assistance in the knowledge that it was planning to attack American targets. The evidence in support of the 9/11 damages claim cites several examples of this alleged co-operation. They include the terrorist training camp at Salman Pak near Baghdad, where former Iraqi intelligence brigadier Jamal al-Qurairy has said that non-Iraqi Islamic radicals were trained to hijack aircraft using knives. - "Spain links suspect in 9/11 plot to Baghdad," by David Rose, The Observer , see UK Guardian , Sunday March 16, 2003
There is quite a bit more out there and the information is only growing.
There is also a strong possibility that Ramzi Youssef is an Iraqi operative. He was certainly being harbored by Hussein. Khalid shaikh Mohammed may also be Iraqi. His ID is also based on Kuwaiti docs which were in Iraq's hands when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
It would not suprise me that an Al-quita group would befriend someone then use them, Kill them, to further their opwn goals.
It was proposed that only some of the hijackers of the 9-11 flights actually knew the final outcome of their mission and kept the others out of the loop intentionally to insure their obedience.
Another tinfoil hat theory. Ok, I'm thinking about this all day, since the circumastnces seem so incongruous.
Nick didn't have contracts over there, but said he was looking for them to help the Iraqi people. I think he could have found contracts if he went to KBR, etc. But one of his hotel acquaintances said he had lots of money and was climbing radio towers and "fiddling with things up there". Could he have been helping someone coordinate IEDs?
Why would the FBI want to know if he ever made a pipebomb? He doesn't seem to be telling quite the truth about
anything in any of the reports I've read.
I know, I'm wierd.
I'm definately wearing mine now, but it's probably not needed. Something is very rotten in the state of Denmark...so to speak. Berg is either one of the good guys or a traitor. I guess only time will tell.
No kidding. Anyone who would join ANSWER would gleefully meet with Fidel Castro if they got a chance, maybe even help him administer some socialist lobotomies.
I thought it was reported that Nick frequently traveled by taxi - not using a regular driver and a regular translator is an invitation to trouble in Iraq.
So, he had told his roommates he was taking a taxi - but they don't know if he was heading home, to cross the borer to Kuwait to fly home or what.
What puzzles me is why he would say an escorted trip to the airport would be "too dangerous" when he would be taken by the US Army and protected.
Instead, he takes a taxe, gets himself kidnapped and we know how the story ends.
But between the "authorities" offering him a ride to the airort and taking a taxi, there are lots of hours and lots of unanswered qustions.
TNT
You're on. That poor guy is going to cling to his lame beliefs with everything he's got. Otherwise he'll have to face the fact that the wishy washy liberalism he passed down to his son led to a horrible death.
I will join ya here for a minute ...The father's reaction doesnt seem real...If I had a child who suported the administration while I hated it (as happened in reverse with my Father and I in the Hippie/Nixon days) we would have a lot of fights ...and yet should the child die while supporting the administration I would feel the need to talk incessantly about his/her beliefs....This father puts out an "Answer" sign? It does not seem right
That makes absolutely no freakin' sense....he thought it would be safer to stay in Iraq than to take a ride to the airport? Strange.
Maybe Berg thought "Answer" was short for "Answer"-al-Islam.
OK folks all of you have missed this one. Get out your tin-foil 10-gallon hat. NOTICE where he was doing tower work? None other than the Abu Gharib PRISON!!! Could it be that Nick was acting for ANSWER to find the "silver bullett" the RATS needed to defeat Bush?
Someone in an above post I think hit the nail on the head--he was working as a go between ANSWER and AQ. Could it be ANSWER sent him there to get the dirt on prison?
Ramsey Clark?
I noticed the beard thing too...
1. I don't remember Nick Berg being reported kidnapped. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
2. Unlike Thomas Hamill and the Japanese hostages, no ransom for Berg was ever demanded, and no threats were made before he was killed. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.
3. The guy was in Iraq alone, looking for work as an antenna repairman. I'm sure there were plenty of antennas back home that needed fixing. Why go all the way to Iraq? And who was going to give him work?
4. Why did U.S. and/or Iraqi government officials detain him and ask him to leave? Have they done the same to others? If he was just repairing antennas, what was the big deal? And if they were suspicious of him, why didn't they forcibly send him back home?
5. The guy's e-mail was "accidentally" used by Moussaoui. Wouldn't Moussaoui have figured out he was using someone else's e-mail when the screen read something like, "Welcome, Nick Berg. You have two new e-mails."? Articles on Berg have described him as an Internet lover who helped his Iraqi brother-in-law (!) set up an e-mail account. Didn't Berg know how to log out after finishing?
6. About this Iraqi in-law: that is slightly unusual. Why did it take so long for that to come out? Could it be that his brother-in-law sold him out?
7. I doubt Berg's Israeli-stamped passport meant he was working for Mossad. I think those guys are smart enough to give their spies non-Israeli passports and non-Jewish last names, especially when they're traveling in Arab countries, for chrissake.
8. His father is a flaming liberal and member of a seditious, anti-American group, International A.N.S.W.E.R., which opposes the war on terrorism. Yesterday, Berg's father said his son "died for Bush's and Rumsfeld's sins," that the Bush administration "was not committed to democracy," and that the Patriot Act ought to repealed. However, I would be willing to dismiss those statements as the words of a man traumatized by his son's brutal murder. Who knows? If he saw the video, it might have driven him crazy.
My very tentative conclusion is that Berg was a liberal do-gooder, similar to the leftist airheads who flock to Israel every so often to be "human shields," who thought he could single-handedly negotiate a peace agreement with the terrorists but instead wound up their victim.
I think the list turned out to be the same one but the genius from Salon didn't bother to go to page two- hence all he had was a short list.
Another thread on this topic...
Nicholas Berg: The Dots Do Not Connect
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1135234/posts
That was yesterday. Today it's FR's fault.
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